I HAD scarcely got my coat off on Monday morning when one of my colleagues from the sports desk asked my opinion of Kylie Minogue’s get-up for the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

Sensing I may be drawn into a feminism versus sexism exchange, I turned the tables and asked what his opinion was of the pink basque, which scarcely covered the sugar popsicle’s lady bits, and those thigh-high leather boots.

The head gear, which rose several feet above her head — Las Vegas showgirl meets Inca warrior — was just ridiculous, so let’s forget that bit for now.

The boots got the thumbs-up, but you don’t need to be Hugh Hefner to predict that boots like that will always get the hetero male vote of approval, unless of course they’re on a 70-year-old granny.

But, according to him — a red-blooded male, by all accounts — the satin basque and fishnets were over the top and inappropriate for a woman of her age. Too much on show, apparently.

Well knock me down with an ostrich feather. Yes, he actually preferred her in the floaty cream dress she wore later on. And so did I. But to hear a male actually berating a woman — actually, not just any woman, but every man’s fantasy Kylie Minogue — for her immodesty was something of a revelation.

If I’d have started this column slagging off Kylie’s outfit choice based on the fact that she’s 46 and therefore too old to be showing off her Brazilian wax, then the trolls would have been baying for my blood. I’d have been criticised for not being as young, sexy, slim or beautiful as Kylie. In other words, I’d have been charged with jealousy.

I know this for a fact because I once wrote a piece criticising Camilla Parker-Bowles and an elderly lady phoned the newspaper and said, “Could I speak to that awful Diane Cooke, with the young hair and the old face.” That put me in my place.

Sisters criticising sisters is never a good fit, but I can’t help agreeing with my colleague. I’m not a huge fan of Kylie, or her brand of supermarket pop, and her incessant flirting on The Voice made me want to swat her like a pesky mosquito.

But that aside, there really is something a bit desperate about a mature woman feeling the need to prove to the youngsters that she’s ‘still got it’.

We know Kylie looks amazing for her age. We just don’t need to see almost all of her to get that.